Coralife Biocube 14 Reef Tank

[ArowanaLover]

I got one for christmas and didnt waste any time getting it set up, however, i did need to buy some more filtration so that i could be satisfied with the tank, for those of you who don't know, the coralife biocubes' filtration model is basically a huge amount of bioballs and nothing else, so i needed something else. I took out all the bioballs and have since added:
1. Coralife biocube UV sterilizer
2. Coralife biocube Protien skimmer
3. Eshopps reef sponge
4. seachem matrix carbon
5. seachem purigen
6. seachem high capicty biofiltration
All in all, i would say the filter is now a massive amount better. I've also boughten the necessary powerhead (hydor nano) and heater (i cant remember the name, sorry).

Everything tested out fine and i had used live sand, live rock, and 3/5 water from my other reef tank. This means that the biofilter in the tank is awesome and the sand has tons of little organisms. So far, i've only added 1 peppermint shrimp and one hermit crab (both of which will be removed), they were just final tests in case i had missed something (though i checked pH, nitrate, calcium, and phosphate and they were all appropriate.) Tomorrow i am hopefully picking up a filtration bag (i forgot to order one and cant put my matrix carbon in yet), and a small clean up crew (already there is some algae, which just goes to show how great those lights are {and that i may have fed the tank a bit too much while it cycled}). my ideas on clean up crew are:
- 4x nassarrius snails
- 3x cerith snails
- 1 skunk cleaner shrimp (comes later)
- 1 emerald crab (comes later)
- 5x hermit crabs

Stocking (fish only, i havent picked out corals yet)
- Possibilty of picasso clown
- 2 mandarin dragonets

I hope this tank goes great and if anyone has any suggestions for fish/inverts be sure to let me know, though im pretty sure im going with at least 1 dragonet

 

[Aubrey]

Where are the pictures?!

However, it sounds very interesting

 

[ArowanaLover]

i'll try to post pictures tomorrow, that way there is a bit more livestock in the aquarium. I also have a minor algae outbreak, so that will be in the pic, but the cleanup crew should get rid of it pretty quick.

 

[Yoshi&Reza]

Congrats on your bio cube! We have the 29 gal but with new changes it will be about 37 gallons. The filtration/flow was horrible so my husband has basically remodeled it the past couple weeks. So excited to see the end result!

When it comes to mandarins (or any dragonet)... they would not survive in a bio cube. First, they need a well established tank (over a year) and it needs to be much bigger (at least 90 gal) for one mandarin, let alone two. Their appetites for copepods is huge! Most mandarins/dragonets will not accept any other foods and when that happens, they only live for a few months once they eat what copepods are available. They are beautiful fish with amazing qualities, as well as being resistant to disease; but they have very specific requirements and it is sad to see them die when those needs aren't met. It isn't a quick death either... it will drag out and they get thinner and thinner. I saw one at a fish store that was completely emaciated... horrible to see.

We have Pucker and he wiped out our established 90 gal copepod population. We ended up having to build a refugium to allow the population to stay steady. When that leveled out we decided to find him a female. Even with our established tank, size, and availability of food, with the second mandarin added they both started getting thin. We had to pull her out and find her a new home so Pucker wouldn't starve.

As for fish, the neon dottyback is a wonderful fish to have. I have enjoyed having him and his colors pop with our lights (radions) . We also have clowns in there as well, but that is max bioload for these small tanks and with the 14 gal bio cube, even two clowns might be all the bioload can handle.

There is a great website that gives a great deal of information on everything saltwater.... Wet Web Media. Good luck and am excited to see pictures and updates on your tank!

Oh, and if you have snails... you really need to make sure you magnesium/calcium ratio is correct. Too much magnesium can affect mobility of snails.

 

[camelotshadow]

Wow, sounds complicated. Good Luck!

 

[ArowanaLover]

Ok, well i went to my LFS today and got some really neat stuff, for a pretty good price, some of it i didn't need, but the price was too good too ignore. I also moved most of the inverts from my 55 gallon because its having some issues and i thought ill move them here till i can get that all stabilized. I'm having a bit of an algae problem and its not one i am by any means happy about, but hopefully my new cleaner crew will...well...clean it up. So that lovely little coral whose name i can't remember i got for only 5 dollars, and i actually got several patches of it, how neat is that? I guess i won't be able to get a dragonet, which makes me sad, maybe a picasso clown and a watchman's goby (i love gobies).

 

[ArowanaLover]

Ohh and stocking list
1. 3x margarita snails
2. 5x (or 6x) assorted hermit crabs (btw i saw a hermit change shells today, it was really cool)
3. 1x skunk cleaner shrimp
4. 3x peppermint shrimp (they are very happy to be reunited)
5. unknown coral?
6. Emerald crab

Next thing i add will probably be fish and some corals, maybe a few more snails as well, i wasnt satisfied with the snails at my LFS, but they were necessary, and i really love how snails are always moving around.

 

[Yoshi&Reza]

Is it xenia (looks a little too blue) or Sympodium frag? I am not sure where you are located... but have you looked at LiveAquaria?? They update WYSIWYG daily at 5 pm...I love their stuff.

That is the main problem we had in the bio cube. It didn't matter what we did for the lights, or water changes.... that is why we remodeled ours. After 2 years of fighting with it, it got old. We took out the back sections of the tank, installed a overflow, and now have it draining into a custom sump/refugium. The flow is amazing!! We also added a more powerful return pump. When we started all this 5 years ago, I always heard how smaller tanks were much harder to keep stable... and after the ease of our 90 gal; this bio cube has been a pain!!

 

[ArowanaLover]

Xenia, or at least that's what i was told, i definitely remember that name. BTW, that algae is almost gone off of one rock and about half the sand, the biggest helpers have been the peppermint shrimp, i would definitely recommend them, always happy little guys and always doing something funny, for example, one of the trio has left the company of the others and has been guarding a snail shell, no idea why, he seems to be depositing some sort of mucus in there (defiantly not eggs).

 

[ArowanaLover]

Yes, i have looked at live aquaria, though i just really hate shipping, im thinking about placing an order from Reefs2Go soon, definitely worth checking out, they have some awesome stuff and some decent pricing

 

[Yoshi&Reza]

From your pictures, it looks a little more like cyano. In the morning, does it appear as if it is going away and then gets more noticeable after the lights have been on? If so, definitely cyano. Hard to tell just from color... because it can be a wide range. Then it is more so just directing a little more flow.

 

[Aubrey]

Thanks for the pics!

I love the emerald crab!

I love these fire and purple fire gobies! I've never kept salt water but I'd love one of these

Firefish Goby

 

[CallmeSweetie]

I wanted to write something happy and congratulatory to you so came up with
Coral is for life not just for Christmas

 

[Yoshi&Reza]

I love these fire and purple fire gobies! I've never kept salt water but I'd love one of these

Firefish Goby

You should try saltwater! It really is a fun experience. But, it all starts out easy and then you find yourself wanting to change this and that. Very addicting! And the life that comes out when lights go out is amazing!

 

[ArowanaLover]

I actually have been keeping a log on this aquarium, i try to write down any additions of stocking, deaths (none so far, thats good), and water quality, its been a huge help. Today's entry
"-No signs of any algae
-Addition of 2 feather duster worms (joined together)
-Coral is doing great, really showing up in all the little colonies
-Sighting of amphipod or copepod"
These little feather duster worms are from the 55 gallon (i'm probably going to convert that tank to FOWLR {i've always wanted a moray eel and a frogfish}). I've heard some say that these things are hard to keep alive, from what i've seen, there is no truth to this, I've had them for a good month or two and had zero problems, they do get spooked when lights change though, all they eat is stuff from the water column (phytoplanton and etc) so they are super easy to feed. @Flipper i would definitely advise getting a saltwater tank, maybe even starting out with just fish if you want to start slow, its so much more fun (for me) then freshwater.

 

[Aubrey]

Thanks for the recommendation

 

[ArowanaLover]

Sad news, all three peppermint shrimp have departed, I think the skunk got a little territorial. I never was able to find bodies, but there is no trace of them. Good news too though, addition of two new corals (i, sadly, can't identify them.) My LFS has a large section of small tanks where they keep all the crabs and etc, some of these tanks also contain corals, i know a guy who works there and he always helps me out with my purchases, he's gotten me some great deals (he got me on the saltwater hobby.) Anyway, these corals are really cheap but really good quality, I usually just buy a few (last time it was 2 for $20) and actually just ask him to pick them out for me (I like a surprise.) They are great corals and look awesome. I also added some more live rock and the tank is looking amazing. I'm hoping to get some bigger corals soon, maybe a small duncan and frogspawn.

 

[Yoshi&Reza]

You should post pictures of the corals. Could probably help figure out the names unless it is sps. I am only familiar with a few of those.

 

[Aubrey]

Sad news, all three peppermint shrimp have departed, I think the skunk got a little territorial. I never was able to find bodies, but there is no trace of them. Good news too though, addition of two new corals (i, sadly, can't identify them.) My LFS has a large section of small tanks where they keep all the crabs and etc, some of these tanks also contain corals, i know a guy who works there and he always helps me out with my purchases, he's gotten me some great deals (he got me on the saltwater hobby.) Anyway, these corals are really cheap but really good quality, I usually just buy a few (last time it was 2 for $20) and actually just ask him to pick them out for me (I like a surprise.) They are great corals and look awesome. I also added some more live rock and the tank is looking amazing. I'm hoping to get some bigger corals soon, maybe a small duncan and frogspawn.

This post is :nanana: Without pics

 

[ArowanaLover]

Here are pics of the tank and corals